My friend Jim wrote this and I totally agree in fact I go further I say this is a powerful call to revolt and an American movie would defend the corporate mouthpiece.
THE NEW PROTOCOL a review by James Neeley. October 26 2009.
Could the New Protocol be made in the United States? Could a movie be made with such an overt political ending stand a chance in a country that needs a hero, sex scenes , lots of guns, one liners, hidden conspiracies and the constant reaffirmation that we are still the "good guys? I think not.
Now Thomas Vincent would find an audience for this movie in America, bigger than an art house audience and smaller than latest torture porn of the Saw franchise. (Franchise not my word, but the current word of choice by the industry for describing these products). We are not complete idiots yet, although we are well on our way.
The movie begins in sub-Saharan Africa with two Europeans bringing vaccines to the local citizens, as ominous dark music grows in the back ground, and a bar code reader beeps with each reading of a bracelet as the children are vaccinated. The bracelet is much like the ones put on my children in the hospital where they were born, although for very different reasons. It was a sound I knew but couldn't place. One child, one bar code.
The question of a hero, in the New Protocol. Raoul Kraft, newly divorced, a hands on foreman with a logging company learns of his sons death in a car accident, questions the official line and is drawn into an action filled movie. So far this movie could be playing on any number of tiny screens at the local mega-plex. He teams up with Diane who recently lost her husband, who had a heart attack, after taking an approved drug. Get a large popcorn and refill the drink. He helps her, and she helps him. Mutually empathy, maybe and mutual selfishness, that too, both have lost someone they love.
No sex scene though, no embrace after the chase, no falling in love, no falling into bed. No wasted film time, no nude scene controversy. In American movies that is the cue that personal love will conquer all problems, if the couple is happy the world will follow. When Diane does kiss Raoul, it is from pure human compassion. They both need something, but it is not each other.
Now for the villains, are they Louise Verneuil and Pleynel?
The audience is conditioned to the evil corporate monster, looking out from the top floor, the conspiracy hidden through murders, threats and payoffs. A naive assistant, a file down loaded as a key is inserted into the door. A bad apple in an all American apple pie. The system itself can not possible be tainted or bad, just the current leadership. They write the fine print we don't read.
Are the the multi-nationals the villains? If you can get the right laws passed, you will not need to break them. There are no hidden conspiracies because no laws are being broken. If you want treatment check here on the release, otherwise go elsewhere. Remember its a free-market.
Are they a public scared to death of getting old, depressed, anxiety ridden, over weight, stressed out, under sexed, over sexed?
We know, deep down we have it better because others have it worse. The market is the velvet glove of the army said Arundhati Roy. But I don't believe that some boomer needs to get an erection until he's 70. I do believe world health takes priority. If you ask the people in churches, grange halls, community groups, non-profits, around dinner tables, you'd get the same response.
If The New Protocol was made in the United States, the villain would have been a rogue corporatist. He would be the benefactor, not the share holders. He would have covered up the mistake. And it would be a mistake, not a five year growth plan. The proper authorities would finally believe Kraft at the last minute, the villain led away in handcuffs. Kraft wrapped in a blanket. His ex wife would be waiting for him, the lights of a police car engulfing them.
But it was not. There will be no sequel.
When Pleynel tried to pacify Raoul with her presentation. And it was a sales presentation, without power point but the same intention. The intention to sell Raoul something he doesn't believe. He believes, because he wants to, needs to. But that handshake he sees on the hotel TV screen. That handshake that says we're all on the same page. We are not.
I liked the ending. It was true.
The hero, if we can call him that, is handcuffed, his son took a placebo, and so do we everyday when we think we are not part of the problem.
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